As of July 4, 2011, most of my blogs are on indefinite sabbatical, but you can still keep up with me on Twitter, my writing and Florida blogs, and JSH News!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Covington's Futuro House

The Futuro House was a short-lived fad during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Okay, maybe it wasn't even a fad, because they only ever built 96 of these things.

With 525 square feet of living space, the Futuro House could supposedly accommodate 8 people, its press releases said. Hmmmm... maybe, but only if you're cozy and unclaustrophobic. These things seem more like children's playhouses to me. While it lacks the size and majesty of Berea's Spaceship School, it still possesses a certain space-opera charm.

The official reason given for the failure of Futuro is that the rising price of plastic during the mid-1970s oil crisis made production of the domed domiciles too expensive. Personally, I think the real reason is simply that no one wanted to live in a tiny plastic space pod.

Of the 96 Futuro houses originally sold, Wikipedia estimates only 60% still exist. We're fortunate to have one of them still intact in Kentucky, on Wright Street in Covington. See it on Google Maps Street View here.

2 comments:

Noticed your article about the Futuro house. I grew up in Northern Ky. and I went to high school with a guy who lived in that house with his father. I was fortunate enough to attend some parties there as well (outdoor only as the house was so small). They had this 70's fab egg chair hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. It was a pretty swinging bachelor pad as I remember it.

I had an uncle who put that deck around the house. He lived across the street from it. I was inside once and it had pink carpet, furniture and lights. The guy who owned it used it as a place to have small parties. This was in the early 90's.